| Topic: | Descartes' original sin |
| Posted by: | Keith |
| Date/Time: | 21/03/2005 08:46:21 |
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Hi John and Carmen, From Whispering; "Descartes was a philosopher/mathematician... He proposed that we are of two parts: mind and body... Once we have been cloven asunder, there is, in particular, the problem of connecting the two "distinct" parts of ourselves. Descartes drew a line that split the entity, the human being, into two parts and thereby created the problem of finding specific ways in which these two now distinct parts could influence one another. This question has exercised philosophers greatly ever since as well as promoting high rates of employment among physicians who are called upon to clean up some of the consequences of Descartes' original sin - his cleaving of the human into mind and body." Would you mind elaborating on; "This question has exercised philosophers greatly ever since as well as promoting high rates of employment among physicians who are called upon to clean up some of the consequences of Descartes' original sin - his cleaving of the human into mind and body." Are you suggesting something like that proposed by Gregory Bateson; “We humans seem to wish that our logic were absolute. We seem to act on the assumption that it is so and then panic when the slightest overtone that it is not so, or might not be so, is presented. It is as if the tight coherence of the logical brain, even in persons who notoriously think with a great deal of muddleheadedness, must still be sacrosanct. When it is shown to be not so coherent, the individuals or cultures dash precipitately, like Gadarene swine, into complexities of supernaturalism. In order to escape the million metaphoric deaths depicted in a universe of circles of causation, we are eager to deny the simple reality of ordinary dying and to build fantasies of an afterworld and even of reincarnation." Bateson, G. (1979). Mind and Nature; A necessary unity. Thanks, Keith |